Self Proclaimed Bandits of the Sea
by Monkeybandit2
Summary: AU. Though no ally of Ainz Ooal Gown in the slightest, no even sharing the same world for that matter now, even Ainz would probably admit that he would at the mercy of hubris to think his situation was solely unique to him and him alone. Alas how is he to know what became of someone he simply wished away during the last few moments of YGGDRASIL's operational time?


**Standard heart wrenching (for me) disclaimers apply: I do not own either Overlord (the anime featuring the skeleton) or One Piece (which I wish I do)...**

****Sniffles.****

Self Proclaimed Bandits of the Sea

Chapter 1: Everything has a beginning

Helheim

YGGDRASIL... he was going to miss it. All the planning, the looting, the trolling, the being awesome. Hell, how many players outside of a proper guild can say they built their own base of operations? A MOBILE ONE AT THAT! Sure it was no Nazarick but those guys, Ainz Ooal Gown, were a league of their own despite being one of the smallest of the guilds member-wise. Doubly so when everyone caught wind that the members have either been leaving or otherwise haven't been seen in an age... and that there was still no _successful_ attempts on that near abandoned guild! One man and his npc army, both conjured and non, defending against the world? An admittedly dwindling one player-wise sadly but still outnumbered 39-to-1, give or take... It was just too damn hilarious _not_ to crack up about it. Regardless it didn't make the point any less valid however when other players _still_ couldn't sack the place. But it did work to his advantage. It emptied their guild bases for a time...

It gave him his most golden opportunities.

Years came and years went after starting small. NPCs at first, monsters for the usual reasons most others went after them: money, quests, loot, etc. Players were next... incidental at first, not for psychotic reasons of course _unlike some others_... but as soon as it became clear that PKs, player kills, not only enabled advancement into superior classes but, if the defeated players were particularly high leveled, dropped items of worth or at least high value... yeah. When the opportunity was at hand he made his fair share of attempts, both successful and non. Then it trickled through the grape vine that other items could be taken from other players so long as it wasn't either currently equipped or that they were an ally...

True it was poor form to leave the guild and rob them blind at the first opportunity... _but they weren't exactly __**saints**__to their own __underlings__. _Bonus points that the guild crumbled the next day—while he would love to say everyone hated his old guild like he did but apparently it was slightly more mundane than that: debts the guild had accrued came calling. Previous business deals with other guilds with an installment payment plan that were still in effect. Mercenaries to either supplement the guild's numbers or harass the other guilds' operation. Even the more system induced expenditures such as the rent for the guild base turned against them so to speak... It was barely a day before they were evicted out of their guild base before their detractors tore into them.

Altogether it made his most fondest memory of what would be the start of Korger the Bandit King. It would give him the both the funds and the courage to infiltrate and later raid other guild bases for their own vaults of gold. It would help fund himself an npc army of his own whimsical designs. It would help eventually give birth to his _Notus_, the first and greatest of the roving battleship of a base to trek across both land and sea. Sadly he just couldn't quite get the flying function to work. It is still the greatest however!

... was the greatest at least by hour's end...

It just wasn't fair.

Sure it wasn't real life but he spent TWELVE YEARS, collecting, paying and earning everything through blood sweat and tears! His character, the _Notus_, the npcs which manned it and guarded it from either vengeful or jealous bastards, a testament and monument of what he _could_ do! What he _can_ do unlike in real life! Here he was some one! An infamous someone but it was better than being crushed underneath the boot of some manager because their own bossed chewed them out simply because it was _Tuesday_ whereas he, James, _just_ happened to be in the line of sight at the moment! Here he could _escape_ his life for a spell and live out a worthwhile existence even if it ultimately chaffed him in the end when he had to either disguise his character with cash shop items to interact with others or, at worse, defend both himself and his base against other raiders whenever either was found out! Even so he nevertheless felt **_ALIVE_** through it all! Now, after twelve years of this it was just going to end?! It... it...!

Just.

Wasn't.

Fair...

Unfortunately like in real life he had no authority here to get what he wanted. It was just going to be another item of a long life's worth of disappointments and regrets that both happened and yet to come to gnaw at the back of his mind till he died. With any luck he would be dead inside long before it finally broke him in the end. As such there was only one thing he could do aside from breaking down and moping. Go out with a bang.

True an alliance of over 1,500 tried and ultimately failed to conquer Nazarik, and that numerous guilds have likewise made their own attempts afterwards only to be crushed as well, _but he is The Raider_. He is the _Bandit King_! The one man guild! The one man **_guild raider_**! Sure he was going to get his ass kicked but it was going to be fun as hell!

With that in mind and with the energetic boost that came with it James' avatar planted one boot upon the railing most relevant to the tomb's front door. The same railing which lorded over the broadside of this battleship on treads for a base with cannons readied to bear down on the mindlessly roaming horde of skeletons that haunted the murky path to the greatest dungeon of the nine worlds of Yggdrasil. Though they were simply milling about as generic npc monsters are ought to do considering they weren't antagonized just yet James couldn't help but ponder whether or not he triggered some sort of perimeter alarm already, or that they were in fact the alarm. Considering that no one shown up yet he was inclined to believe the latter. From there it was simply a matter of deciding how to go about this—full fusillade and storm in? Tempting. Formal declaration of war just for the kick in the teeth? Might be more interesting than just barreling in. Oh! He might even lure out the guild leader and whatever army he gathered on short notice into the killing field! A quick but devastating blast would not only wipe the skeletons off the map but weaken the defenders enough for his bandit army to storm out and finish them off!

... then again any message on his part might convince the last of Ainz Ooal Gown into basically turtling the inside door where the cannons would most definitely not reach them. Hell, as much as he had faith in his crew of marauders it would be a slaughter pure and simple with such a narrow choke point. It would also basically slam the opportunity to sack the once glorious guild shut like a real life bank vault door. Both he and his loyal followers deserved better than that. Then again he did want a challenge, futile though it would be considering the ticking clock taunting him at the edge of his HUD's display.

With some reluctance he pulled up the window to the chat channel. From there he went to the zone's general chat and subsequently activated the list of names of everyone who was currently inhabiting—

... Two people besides his hidden self. Seriously?

Out of idle curiosity he backed up to include the entire world of Helheim—

Still three people including his masked presence... it actually hurt him to see that. Then again if he bothered to enter the cash shop for materials, components and services to make him all but physically, by the game's standards at least, invisible to the naked eye then it was very possible that there were indeed more players in Helheim at this very moment. Whether or not they bothered with the subscription service or to bust their hump collecting and piecing together that jigsaw puzzle of a code the store handed out in fragments was another story however... a moot one but still another story.

Regardless.

After careful deliberation with himself met out by use of a coin which he flipped he chose the closest name that sounded like a leader on the list, hoping against hope that this Momonga was indeed a part of Ainz Ooal Gown. If not then this Herohero guy. Failing that he was just going to kick things off and run wild.

"Hello! You there?"

"Fumu? Sumimasen ga, watashi wa sore o rikai dekimasendeshita(1)."

Jame's lips faltered from its confident grin as he tried to place the language... Japanese wasn't it? He managed to catch some bootleg anime online here and there. Sadly only a few ever had subtitles to them. Even so shouldn't the auto-translator have kicked in or something like that? He took a minute to pause himself he checked the services section of his character sheet to see if it was on. Sadly upon failing to even find it he was soon reminded that it was yet _another_ cash shop service as opposed to something provided by the developers as a courtesy given the game's intercontinental reach. Jackasses. As tempted as he was to splurge on it, given the now half hour countdown it would just be a piss-poor waste of money. Maybe he had it though?

"Hey, can you understand me? Do you have a translator function on you?" James practically yelled through the Personal Messaging system. Ironic that he had to go out and buy it from the cash shop given his solitary lifestyle in the game. Then again he got it as an unfortunate necessity when he was still with _that guild_.

"Sumimasen ga, watashi wa mada anata o rikai shite imasen. Futari tomo watashitachi no kyarakutā ni honyaku-sha ga anai yodesu(2)."

Drat.

Oh well. Plan B. In a side note that Herohero person logged off it seems. Sadly he wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or not given the fact that he had no idea as to who this player was, especially any at all allegiances said hero may have had, not that it stopped the Bandit King by any margin.

The first cannonade quickly tore through the ranks with such brutal efficiency there was barely a need for a second barrage. Kind of disappointing really. Then again only custom npcs crafted to look like skeletons were known to be stronger than level forties, and he should know. In fact that only served to shore up his initial suspicion of them being an alarm system rather than the guard dogs. To further damn them further in this light who should show up than Momonga himself! "_I KNEW IT!_" he cackled to himself.

"Mite, watashi wa ima no kibunde wanai sayonara(3)."

What idle thought processes he had dedicated to trying to unravel what Momonga had said to him died the second the bandit stared in utter shock and dread when the skeletal player was utterly engulfed in bright blue sigils and circlets of _super tier magic_. "ALL GUNS TARGET THE PLAYER!" he barked and cried at once! He might not have any idea as to _what_ Ainz Ooal Gown's remaining guardian had in mind but he wasn't about to find out! As ordered the finely tuned programming dominating the gunners' AI directed their cannons upon the enemy player and fired at will... for only one second. It was a full few seconds longer for their maker and master to realized what had happened. To acknowledge that the swampland of Helheim that surrounded the Tomb of Nazarick had been replaced with copious amounts of thick roiling fog that at first glance would seemingly stretch out forever in every direction barring a tunnel running through it made near indistinguishable thanks to the scenery. For better or worse he realized where he was and groaned as his character crumbled onto the deck in utter defeat. He ruefully snorted to himself as he then had his character sprawl onto the decking of the _Notus_ so he could blearily stare up at the foggy 'sky.' "The Branches huh?"

This... region actually had no name. While perhaps an oversight originally, as the years gone by the players themselves took to naming these winding interconnected tunnels themselves. 'The Divide,' the 'Snake Path,' 'The Roads,' "Smoked Paths"... He personally called them The Branch Roads or Branches for short in honor of the mythology of the game; the nine worlds of YGGDRASIL, each one supposedly a leaf on a single branch or spread out by several and thus were connected to one another by branches. Other than teleporting from one world to another the only method of travel between these worlds were the Branch Roads. There were two problems to this however... While the route between worlds was ultimately short between adjacent worlds like Niflheim and Helheim, if the traveler wasn't careful they would not only miss their intended exit but potentially end up somewhere else entirely. That or encountered the second problem... the World Eater itself. A wondering raid boss like no other that stalked the Branch Roads. Powerful, elusive, sightings were rare despite the best efforts of would be challengers. Any encounters were too short lived to glean any useful information beyond "colossal black serpent dragon." To this day no one defeated it; it would've been all over the message boards when someone finally answered the question of "what does it drop?" Personally he never saw it. The sheer notion it was there though was creepy enough to make his excursions into the Branch Roads _extremely brief_ at the utter most if he could help it.

... In fact...

For a brief moment he snapped out of his self imposed depression to get his character onto his feet so he could take a good and long look at his surroundings to see if he and they, his npcs, were truly alone. Thankfully they were. Sadly though it seemed that there wasn't any exits nearby either... even worse was that there was no map whatsoever of the Pathways. Until he chanced upon an exit and popped into the world on the other side he wouldn't have the faintest clue as to where he was in relation to Helheim. Hell, eying the clock right now, he would be lucky to even get to the border in time before the game was offline for good if worse came to worst.

Still, it wasn't like he had anything better do to, both in this virtual life and in real life. Though it would ultimately amount to nothing considering he had... twenty minutes left, what dignity he had to his name that wasn't drowning in despair was softly commanding him to take charge and at least try.

With another sigh he slowly plodded his way to the bridge where the steering wheel was. He smirked at that. Just another of a long line of little amusements. He never intended for the _Notus_ to be a ship, much less one that could travel on land thanks to retractable caterpillar attachments, pain in the ass as it was to get them working in the first place. But since there was a surprisingly few monsters, minerals and plant life worth the effort to farm as a whole any aquatic domain in the nine worlds of the game it was his ideal hiding place whenever he wasn't online; formidable though the defenses were, in his opinion at least, his base didn't wink out like his character did whenever he logged off. It didn't always worked but it worked well enough for the most part, especially when he made a habit of moving the base almost every night to ensure its security. Still it amused him. He was tempted to call himself a pirate, _but_, between the land-to-water ratios being in favor of land and most of his raiding was _on land_, it didn't quite appeal to him. That and the title of Pirate would be clue enough to anyone with half a brain to figure out where to look whenever he was gone. Or so he would like to think at least. Regardless, at any rate, the moment he reached the bridge which overlooked the entirety of the ship/base he partially waved at the shipmaster, a glorified guard really, out of habit before grasping the captain's wheel and accessing the _Notus'_ command console. With a sigh he urged the mobile base forward along the near indistinguishable track for all that it was worth now. Even so he couldn't help but smile just a little as he quietly savored the last voyage of the _Notus_.

Fifteen minutes and there wasn't a break in the walls in sight.

... ten minutes were left now. He must have been in one of the longer sections. Creepy as hell but at least the World Eater hadn't shown up yet. That or those pills he took after working an all nighter yesterday so he could enjoy one last run were starting to screw with him.

Five and still nothing...

One minute left and what quiet patience he had toward this whole endeavor had worn thin enough to be spent cursing out Momonga's vengefulness despite somberly enjoying his trip. Honestly, he should've seen _one_ threshold by now! Granted he never spent a great deal in The Divide but he would like to think he was familiar enough with it to call bull on it!

Even so his character hung his head back as an audible, yet formless on his character's face, sigh escaped it. "I guess this is it," James murmured to himself as he eyed the dwindling seconds edging closer to midnight, the appointed time of the game's closure.

"Twelve years... I kind of wish they were a bit different here in the end. Maybe made a friend or two out there before things got too bad but..." If he could his character's face would've formed a wistful smile as he counted the final ten seconds on the clock. "I wouldn't have changed it for the world."

... seven seconds.

Six.

Five.

Etc... etc...

He closed his eyes the exact moment the clock read as full zeros, midnight, and wearily sighed once more... but something was... off. He wasn't sure what but it was enough to have him snap his eyes open once more and peer out into the tunnel they were still trapped in. He glanced up to the digital clock only to find it missing along with his HUD upon a second glance to realize as much. He blinked in confusion as a confused frown left his lips. Was the game still active? Had he somehow bypassed the shutdown due to a glitch of some kind thanks to being in The Branches? It was hard to say. Everything looked the same for the most part at least.

Oh look! Finally, an exit!

As per habit he began to turn the wheel in the direction of the spatial disturbance taking form of a coalescing swirl of fog like smoke being funneled out of an air vent. He wouldn't realize it at first but as he was turning the wheel he was not only grunting with minor effort but there was pressure on his hands that shouldn't have been there before. After all, before he logged in he was sitting in a lay-z-boy...

XVX

East Blue

In preparation to survivng a whirlpool he was unfortunately being drawn to in spite of his best efforts a somewhat gangly looking teenager in blue shorts, a red vest and wearing a straw hat with a red band around it had just hopped into a barrel and promptly sealed himself as tightly as he could inside it. As such he wasn't aware of in the least that a colossal tub of a ship slowly slipping out of a ripple in the air above his dingy of a boat. Worse yet for him he hadn't the faintest clue that due to its weight that once over half the ship rumbled out into the open it pitched forth and subsequently slipped out from the portal. Sadly for him it was crashing direct course for the exact portion of the ocean the teenager's boat was gently drifting in.

Needless to say it was obliterated the second it was sandwiched between several tons of wood and metal and the otherwise unforgiving sea.

Whilst emergency measures to slam the gun ports shut were enact and the ship's buoyancy compelled it to correct itself by lurching its temporarily submerged half back into fresh air a number of planks floated back into the surface only to be ignored by the ship's crew as they continued to panic from surprise. Amongst the unwittingly forsaken wreckage was a straw hat..

**A/N: This idea has actually been rattling inside my head for quite some time. ****In fact it's been in there ever since I seen season 1 of Overlord (the anime) on Hulu back when there was (to my knowledge at least) only still season 1 period. ****At long last it rattled loud enough to the point where I couldn't ignore it any longer.**

**Admittedly however I was and still am fairly hesitant to write this for basically one particular reason which was only reinforced my quiet little fear (yet ironically strengthened my inability to ignore this story due to said fear) when I watched season 3... I basically can't write either James' character or his crew of bandits without them being OP.****Hell, right off the bat I can safely say only New World crews would have a fair chance against them.****At any rate however now that I pulled the trigger I am thus tasked with a challenge I have not really prepared myself for... ****how do I write a story featuring OP characters and make it interesting enough to read till the end? ****I honestly hope I'm up to it.**** . **

**And in other news...**

**To those who basically hold Overlord (the anime) near religiously, I'm sorry to say that I'm more or less going to deviate from it as showcased with the ****_Notus_****:****basically guild bases are dungeons in of themselves as best showcased by Ainz Ooal Gown's Tomb of Nazarik.****Be that as it may, if you look at the lore of their own base, it originally had six floors to it when the guild conquered it and they not only modified said tomb but added extra floors to it. ****So, in theory at least, a crazy attempt like Korger's (James') mobile raiding base is potentially possible yet admittedly most likely wouldn't exist in the main continuity in regards to the game beyond a small scale operation at the most. ****Setting that aside for a moment, during some semi-whimsical research I couldn't help but be somewhat baffled by the class system which, at least to me, can be best described as a mix and match system dependant on not only the player's preferences but also by what they personally achieved in the game. ****A canon example would be Touch Me's World Champion class which was only attainable by winning a certain high level tournament between players. ****Even so, it seems rather flexible to me. ****As in warrior mages, holy necromancers, paladin rogues and so on if you catch my meaning...****I'm not going to ****_remotely _****touch that subject in the story for the sake of simplicity. ****The utter most I can say is that James' character is a warrior/assassin type. ****I will also be guilty of making up skills/techniques as I go. ****I will not explain this whatsoever, again for the sake of simplicity least ****_my_****head explodes from having to delve back into the wiki alone.**** . **

**On a more random note Momonga's world before he turned into Ainz was depressing as hell to read...**

**Finally, I ****might not be updating****this frequently.****It's getting kind of a bad habit on my part to start posting stories without finishing others much like a number of other Fanfictions author's. ****As such please don't expect an update any time soon till the others have been concluded.**

**Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Monkeybandit2, making off with your attention! No refunds.**

**And now the translations from Google Translator!:**

(1)- Hm? I'm sorry but I didn't understand that.

(2)- I'm sorry but I still don't understand you. It seems we both lack translators on our characters.

(3)- Look, I'm not in the mood right now. Goodbye.


End file.
